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Tag: Daniel Radosh

Blurb Meme — Ten years ago Rob Suggs wrote a humorous article for Christianity Today that mentions the (entirely fictional) book, “The Collected Blurbs of J. I. Packer. Any book worth reading has a short dust-jacket recommendation from J. I. Here are hundreds of the best cover endorsements from the ‘King of Blurbs’.” A decade later, the octogenarian theologian is still viewed as the most prolific blurber in Christendom. (Just today I received a book to review titled “Sex, Sushi, & Salvation” and prominently displayed on the cover was a recommendation from…J.I. Packer.)
Since I have hundreds of books in my library I thought I’d have a dozen titles endorsed by Packer. So I checked them all and to my surprise I found only nine books had his stamp of approval. In fact, Packer came in second to Chuck “Prince of Blurbs” Colson who had ten blurbs. Coming in a distant third and fourth was Dallas Willard with six and J.P. Moreland with five blurbs. Five other blurbers (James Sire, Jim Skillen, Mark Noll, Os Guinness, and Richard Mouw) tied for fifth place with four each. (The most unexpected blurb I found was seeing Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s name on Ron Sider’s Just Generosity.)
Who are the most prolific blurbers in your library? Any names in your library pop up more than ten times?

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Countdown to the ESVSB Launch — My friend Justin Taylor recently announced the launching of the website for the ESV Study Bible. The ESB doesn’t come out until October but it’s already getting rave reviews. And no, Packer didn’t blurb it–he’s the theological editor for the edition.

This is a list of 10 great Christian rock songs. Really. I know what you’re thinking. I’m a secular Jew who always took it for granted that Christian rock stinks. Indeed, until a couple of years ago I knew virtually nothing about Christian rock except that it stinks. But after spending time inside the “evangelical bubble” I had to admit I was mistaken. It turns out there’s Christian music that never gets played on those radio stations you accidentally stumble across on road trips — and that doesn’t reduce all expressions of faith to crass evangelism, anodyne praise, or crypto-romance.

On his website, Radosh even has audio versions of each of the songs on the list.

No. 10: There weren’t as many Osmonds as he thought.
No. 9: Got tired of the corkscrew landings of his campaign plane while under fire
No. 8: As a lifelong hunter, I didn’t want to miss the start of varmint season.
No. 7: There wasn’t room for two Christian leaders in the presidential race
No. 6: I was upset that no one bothered to search my passport files.
No. 5: I’d rather get fat, grow a beard and try for the Nobel prize.
No. 4: Got tired of wearing a dark suit and tie, and I wanted to kick back in a light colored suit and tie.
No. 3: When my wife realized I couldn’t win the GOP nomination, my fundraising dried up.
No. 2: I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.
And the No. 1 reason Romney dropped out: His campaign relied on a flawed campaign strategy that as Utah goes, so goes the nation.